The Commission on Appellate Court Appointments sent Gov. Katie Hobbs five nominees Monday to fill a vacancy on the Arizona Supreme Court.
The commission met on Nov. 9 to consider a list of eight candidates. According to the state Constitution, the commission was required to forward at least three of those names to the governor.
The commission ultimately settled on five candidates to replace Robert Brutinel, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer in 2010 and retired in October.
Hobbs now has 60 days to appoint a new justice.
The list includes two judges currently serving on the Arizona Court of Appeals: Judges Maria Elena Cruz and Andrew Jacobs.
Cruz, a Democrat, was appointed to the appellate court by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey in 2017 after serving as a judge in the Yuma County Superior Court since 2009.
Cruz received the most support of any candidate from the commission, with 15 of the 16 commissioners voting in favor of her nomination. One member, Supreme Court Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer, abstained from all votes.
Hobbs appointed Jacobs, another fellow Democrat, to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 2023. Prior to that, he worked as private attorney with Snell & Wilmer, focusing on contract law, commercial law, federal constitutional law, tax law and intellectual property law, according to his application for the appointment.
The commission voted 12-3 to approve Jacobs’ nomination.
The commission also nominated three candidates with extensive experience working in state government.
That includes Regina Nassen, who has been the principal assistant city attorney in Tucson since August 2021. She previously worked for the Pima County Attorney’s Office for nearly 18 years before briefly working as Pima County’s deputy economic development director in 2021.
The commission voted 14-1 to approve Nassen’s nomination.
Nicole Davis is the deputy director and general counsel for the Arizona Department of Economic Security and has been in the role since 2019. She was previously deputy general counsel for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System from 2017 to 2019 and worked for the Attorney General’s Office under Democrat Terry Goddard and Republican Tom Horne.
The commission voted 13-2 to approve Davis’ nomination.
Unlike the other three candidates, Davis and Nassen are independents with no political party affiliation.
The Arizona Constitution requires that all candidates forwarded to the governor for consideration not be members of the same political party.
The closest vote came on Democrat Alexander Samuels’ nomination. The commission voted 9-6 on Samuels, who has worked as principal deputy solicitor general for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. Samuels oversees a staff of over 60 attorneys dealing with civil and criminal litigation brought by the Attorney General’s Office. He was previously an assistant U.S. attorney in Arizona.
This is Hobbs’ first opportunity to name a Supreme Court justice and the first time a Democratic governor will fill a vacancy on the high court since 2005.
